


Just Go Home

by actually18pigeons



Series: Whumptober 2020 [4]
Category: The Night Shift (TV 2014)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Migraine, Sickfic, Whump, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020, no.26
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26825737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actually18pigeons/pseuds/actually18pigeons
Summary: Whumptober Prompt 26, Migraine. TC gets a migraine at work, and tries to hide it. Yup, that's the plot. Kinda angsty?
Relationships: Jordan Alexander/T. C. Callahan
Series: Whumptober 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1941847
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30





	Just Go Home

**Author's Note:**

> Whumptober Day 4, Prompt 26, Migraine. This is my first work in this fandom, but I really do love writing T.C. and I think he's an excellent character to write whump for. Enjoy!

Say what you will about Jordan and TC’s relationship with all its ups and downs. Maybe it was unprofessional, unhealthy, unusual, but regardless of how they were defining it at any given moment, it was nothing if not close. So after years of this closeness, plus a significant medical background, she was pretty damn good at noticing when something was wrong with TC. From the badly hidden bruises from late night brawls, to the shaking hards after a rough day, Jordan had seen it all, even if TC liked to pretend she hadn’t. 

So when Jordan saw TC slide what looked like a pill bottle into the pocket of his jeans early into their shift one night, she noticed. It wasn’t notable enough to confront him about, but definitely something to keep in mind. 

Jordan kept an eye on him as the shift wore on, patient after patient, paperwork, codes… all the standard events of a long shift. TC wasn’t acting normal, but she couldn’t quite place her finger on what was different. A couple more trips into the break room than usual, a few subtle winces, squinting at paperwork a few inches away, something was definitely wrong. 

After TC started walking towards the break room for the third time in an hour, Jordan decided to follow him. She entered the dark room a minute behind him, instinctively flipping on a lightswitch, not expecting a pain-filled hiss from the man in front of her. He turned around slowly, face scrunched in pain, one eye closed, the other eye half closed to try to shut out the bright light. 

“T, are you going to tell me what’s going on, or are you going to keep making up terrible excuses to suspiciously sneak into the dark break room to keep doing… whatever you’ve been doing.”

“I’m fine,” T smiled, that sly smile that got him out of anything. He made an effort of straightening up, even opening both eyes in an attempt to look somewhat normal. 

“I’ve seen you make it through shifts while wildly hungover, a few with a broken nose, and one while dosed up on Nyquil, so you’re really going to tell me you’re fine while you can barely open your eyes without wincing in pain or read patient records right in front of you?”

“Yes?” He smiled again, walking over to his locker and pulling out a bottle of Coke, waving it towards her, “it’s for the caffeine.”

“You’re just tired?”

He sighed, pulling the pill bottle out of his pocket, shaking one oblong white pill into his hand and taking it with a swig of Coke. “I woke up with a headache, that’s not unusual, but within the first hour or so of the shift I realized it was a migraine.”

“I’ve never known you to get migraines.”

“Well, what can I say, my body hates me.”

“It sure has a reason to.” 

TC grinned, but the carefree expression was quickly negated with a subtle wince. Now that he didn’t have to worry about keeping up the act, he reached over switching the lights back off, leaving them in the dark, the room only lightly illuminated by the streetlamps outside. 

“Normally I catch them early enough that I can take medicine and it kicks in and it’s fine, but I missed that window so now’s it’s just taking Advil as often as I can and chugging whatever has caffeine.” He reached one hand up, digging the heel of his hand into his left eye socket. 

“Did you have any warning it was going to get this bad? Do you get auras? You could have called in sick.”

“I don’t get auras thank god, that’s too close to hallucinations and god knows I’m one misstep away from getting diagnosed with ptsd as it is,” he said this as a joke without thinking, but she could sense the seriousness behind the statement. 

Jordan began to reach out, but realized she didn’t know exactly what she had intended to do. She settled with taking a step closer to him, and lowering her voice to a gentle whisper, “you can head home early if you need to, it’s shaping up to be a pretty slow night, and you’re of no real use if you can’t be near bright lights or loud noises, those are two of the main staples in hospitals.”

He smirked at this, before turning to sit in one of the cushy armchairs by the wall, taking another swig of soda. Jordan took a seat next to him, watching as he rubbed his temples, trying to relax into the chair. 

“You know I can’t do that,” he responded tiredly, “any given night we’re one accident away from an emergency, we can’t afford to not have me here.”

“That may be true, but like any pain, if you don’t take the time to let it heal, it’s just going to get worse. If you don’t go home tonight, it gets worse tomorrow, and you’re out for the next several nights, then that leaves us worse off than if you just left now.”

“Thank you for the concern Jordan, but I’ll be fine, I just need to wait for the drugs to kick in and I’ll be good as new.”

“Sure, as if you haven’t been maxing out Advil with no changes, you said it yourself, if you miss the window OTC meds aren’t going to work.”

“Well one can hope,” TC made to stand up, before faltering, grabbing the arm rest to stabilize himself as one hand went up to press hard into his eye socket again. 

Jordan gently guided him back down into the chair, opening her mouth to speak as he seized a nearby trashcan, dropping his soda to the ground before lurching forward retching. Not much came up, but TC continued to heave as his body dispelled what little he had eaten the day before. Jordan reached over, rubbing circles into his back as she watched helplessly. After a few minutes, he sat back, coughing lightly, but no longer gagging. He wiped his mouth messily, before leaning back into the chair, laying a forearm over his eyes. 

“TC please,” she reached over placing a hand on his leg, “just head home, I’ll give you a ride. Just get some rest, take more drugs, whatever you need, just go home.”

He turned to her, uncovering his eyes slightly, squinting in the dim light. “But if I leave and something happens, that’s on me, and I can’t pretend it’s not.”

Jordan reached out to him, rubbing a gentle thumb across his damp forehead, “T, you can’t think like that. If something happens and in the middle of it you pass out from the pain of a migraine you have the exact same outcome. You can’t take care of everyone, and taking care of yourself needs to come before anyone or anything else.” He looked at her, pain and sadness equally present in his eyes.

“Jordan you know I can’t leave, I just can’t.” 

She sighed in resignation, “I know T, how about we compromise, go lie down, and I’ll wake you up or page you if anything comes up.”

She could tell he wanted to protest, but instead he sank deeper into the chair, throwing both arms over his face to block out the minimal light left in the room. She stood, walking over to the sink and running a towel under the cool water. “I’m going to take that as a yes.” She walked back over to him, carefully removing his arm from his face and laying the soaked cloth over his eyes. 

He sighed, relaxing further into the chair, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome T, I’ll check on you in 20, try to relax.”


End file.
